Marketers ranked automation as the top factor they needed to focus on in 2017 (Econsultancy).

But, according to the ‘Email Marketing Industry Census 2017’, the highest proportion of marketers (30%) now rank personalisation as their main priority, ahead of automation (28%).

So, the demand for both personalised, automated email marketing is definitely there. And, the benefits are clear.

Kath Pay, founder and senior consultant at Holistic Email Marketing, described personalisation at scale as a “no-brainer”.

She explained: “It can result in providing the consumer with relevant and valuable offers and content served up specifically for that individual based upon their past behaviours (both email and web) and transactions, as well as their lifecycle or buying funnel stage that they’re in.” [Econsultancy]

The stats back this up, too. 71% of companies who utilised both tactics simultaneously reported ‘excellent’ or ‘good’ email campaign performance, compared to just 35% of companies who don’t.

And, marketing execs are starting to take notice. Almost twice as many companies are now deploying automation and personalisation in unison compared to last year.

If you want to join them, start by centralising as much customer data as you can, including:

Then, draw up personas based on these attributes, and design content specifically for each group (with a bespoke tone and offers).

Set up triggers to send out emails automatically when a customer carries out a particular action (or, combination of actions). Then, you’ve got a campaign that’s effortlessly personal yet easy to administer.

B2B content marketing is on the march

Content Marketing Insitute, Marketing Profs and Curata has found that content marketing is becoming increasingly important for B2B businesses.

Spotted in the news…

The ad – only 15 seconds long – ends with the camera zooming in on an Burger King employee, who states: “OK Google. What is the Whopper burger?”. The ad aims to activate viewers’ phones and take them to the Burger King Wikipedia entry.

But, some clever sod updated the entry within hours of the advert’s release. So, consumers’ were informed the burger contained cyanide and was “the worst hamburger product”. Two lessons here; semantic search is reaching new heights, and always own the platform you promote your content on.